


let things come out of the woodwork

by atlantisairlock



Category: Charlie's Angels (2019), Charlie's Angels (Movies)
Genre: Cute, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Future Fic, Oblivious, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21520477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlantisairlock/pseuds/atlantisairlock
Summary: Elena starts training to be an Angel. Sabina is there to help her through it.
Relationships: Elena Houghlin/Sabina Wilson, Jane Kano/Rebekah Bosley
Comments: 16
Kudos: 416





	let things come out of the woodwork

**Author's Note:**

> guest asked for sabina and elena during elena's training, and all the convoluted and dumbass ways elena tries to convince herself herself and others that they are definitely not dating.
> 
> title from 'homemade dynamite' by lorde.

The first thing Elena learns about being an Angel is that most of them don’t get recruited the way she was, which, quite frankly, is probably a relief.

“A lot of us come from military backgrounds, or were related to existing Angels or Bosleys,” Sabina informs her in their very first study session. That’s another thing that’s different about her recruitment and training process - most new recruits don’t have an Angel mentor per se, but Sabina seems to have basically made herself Elena’s study buddy, as it were. Ever since her training started, Sabina, and to a lesser extent Jane, has been hanging around, giving her tips, helping her out. It’s nice. She’s definitely not complaining. After all, as Sabina tells her, she needs the help.

“You’re smart and driven and you have guts,” she says. “You can be molded. That’s the first step. You’ve got stuff to learn, but you can definitely do it.”

“And you’ll help me?” Elena says hopefully, because she can think of a lot of things she’s going to need help with.

“Of course, babe,” Sabina grins. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Training begins, and she takes to a lot of things with more ease than she expects. Hacking and coding are a breeze, to nobody’s surprise - bomb defusing and close-quarters combat, a little bit more so. She supposes Krav Maga really has helped.

She struggles a bit more with basically learning how to shoot and snipe from scratch, and driving, piloting and agility needs a whole lot more work. Sabina is as good as her word, spending hours on end in the firing range with her - correcting her stance, her grip, her angle. She’s a good teacher. So is Jane, who drops in ever so often, to give another perspective, drawing from her experience in MI6.

Sometimes Elena will be busy doing an exercise - assembling and disassembling a gun a hundred times so it becomes muscle memory - and from the corner of her eye she’ll see Jane and Sabina talking at the side, body language easy and relaxed around each other. There’s something there, something she’s a little envious of. Something she wants.

 _Focus,_ she tells herself sternly, and tries to pretend that all she wants is to be an Angel.

Sabina spends a lot of time helping Elena with her training, but it’s not all work and no play. She wheedles Saint into cooking up delicious meals for them to eat in Elena’s room while talking about anything and everything under the sun, or she’ll whip up something of her own and they’ll do the dishes together afterwards. Sabina is _excellent_ at cooking, and her repertoire is varied and delicious. Elena isn’t sure if it’s a rich people thing, like the horse-riding, or just an Angel thing.

“Neither,” Sabina tells her. “My ex-wife was a chef - well, a chef and also an assassin. She taught me how to cook.”

Elena just stares at her for a second, because _what???_

Sabina notices, and laughs, putting the lid on the pot of curry she’s making. “Oh, yeah, I forgot I told _Jane_ that story on the way to Brock’s mansion to rescue you. So I fell in love with this girl back in college - head over heels whirlwind kind of shit. Which is not surprising, because she was basically sent to make me fall for her and infiltrate my family circle so she could kill my parents. It was a revenge thing - they were responsible for taking down _her_ parents’ corrupt business that was acting as a front for drug trafficking. She put up a fantastic act for, what, two years? Just biding her time. And then at our wedding she pulled her gun. Unfortunately for her, I was the better shot. Ha. That was fun.”

Which, holy shit, is a wild story, but Elena’s mind lingers on something else Sabina says. “Speaking of rescuing me,” she says slowly. “I never heard what happened. I thought you two were dead and John shot Bosley and _kidnapped_ me and by the time I saw you again we were in Brock’s mansion.”

Sabina grimaces. “Yeah. Now _that_ was not fun. Honestly, you should probably ask Jane. I was knocked out for a lot of that too - had a pillar fall on me. She was the one who got me out of there to Fatima’s place, and Fatima patched me up. Would’ve died if not for her and Jane. And Jane called Saint, who found Bosley still alive at the ruins of the hotel, and she explained everything to us. Once Saint did his magic and I could walk, we went straight to Brock’s mansion to get you.”

“Jane saved you,” Elena murmurs, and Sabina nods ruefully. “She straight-up heaved this huge-ass pillar off me and carried me on foot all the way to Fatima. I owe her my life.”

Elena is quiet for a moment, remembering that night - stumbling through the rubble, seeing Bosley coming towards her with that genuine terror in her eyes - _Elena, get down, get down!_ \- and then John, dragging her away, the suspicion setting in even before they got to the mansion. She hadn’t believed Jane and Sabina were dead, not really - not except for that one terrible second, with her vision blurry and ears ringing and Bosley lying still in front of her. The tears are filling her eyes before she can stop them - she hasn’t had any time since then to really process what happened in that crazy week, being thrown straight into Angel training and all, and it’s all beginning to hit her now, for real. She curls in on herself, head between her knees, and is only vaguely aware of Sabina coming to her side and wrapping her in a hug. “Hey, it’s okay. We all made it. Everything’s okay. Just let it out.”

“If you’d died in there,” Elena begins, but can’t continue, because even the thought chokes her again. Sabina strokes her back soothingly, easing her breathing. “Trust me, it’d take a lot more than that to take me down, baby.”

Elena manages a laugh, a little wet, and Sabina smiles. “You good?”

She nods, but doesn’t ease out of Sabina’s embrace. “Thank you for fighting so hard to keep me safe.”

“Team effort,” Sabina says breezily. “And hey, once you become an Angel, you’ll be able to protect yourself. That’s what we’re working towards, right?”

“Right,” Elena agrees, and she means it.

But still, knowing she’s got Sabina - and Jane and Bosley - watching her back, ready to put themselves in danger for her sake - that doesn’t hurt.

“Go through it again. Agency guidelines, interpersonal relationships.”

Elena groans, flopping back onto her bed - her brain feels more overstuffed than her stomach after a buffet. She’s got a test coming up, an important one, and Sabina’s been insistent on quizzing her and making sure she won’t have to retake it, because that’s a massive waste of time for someone who managed to hack an EMP and basically save the world. “I can’t believe we actually have to memorise all this. It feels like the SATs. We seriously have to do a multiple-choice exam on this stuff?”

“Yes,” Sabina says crisply, though not without humour. “Come on, if I could ace it, so can you. Lots of it is common sense, anyway - you just need to make sure you know the rulebook cover to cover. Come on - just one last section, and you can have a reward.”

It’s like Sabina coaxing a five-year-old to eat their vegetables, but at this point Elena does not care. “Is the reward going to be one of your delicious omelettes?”

Sabina heaves a faux-aggravated sigh. “Yes, I will make you a perfect Wilson omelette if you can get all the points for this section right.”

Elena sits up in delight and puts her notes face-down, ticking points off her fingers. “Angels can maintain existing relationships with non-Agency personnel, but secrecy is key. If an Angel deliberately reveals the existence of the Agency and her role in it to non-Agency personnel, she risks being stripped of her title and being ousted from the Agency, with no chance of reapplying. Angels can reveal the existence of the Agency to non-Agency personnel they have deemed to be potential recruits, but only after approval from Charlie. The Agency will not interfere in Angels’ personal lives, but Angels are encouraged to report close relationships - familial and romantic - to ensure the Agency has their identities on the database.”

“Rationale,” Sabina prompts. Elena nods, inhaling deeply. “This allows the Agency to keep tabs on the people its Angels are close to in order to ensure their safety and that secrecy is maintained. However, reporting is not mandatory if Angels are not comfortable with doing so. Angels can engage in romantic relationships with other Agency personnel, which is also encouraged to be reported, but also similarly not mandatory.”

“Correct. Angels can date Bosleys, Angels can date Angels,” says Sabina. “And in fact, Charlie deems there is less necessity to report the existence of that as compared to relationships with non-Agency personnel, because if some nutjob bad guy comes after you and you’re dating a fellow Angel, there’s less of a risk that said nutjob bad guy is going to be able to use your fellow Angel as leverage, because she’ll probably be more able to hold her own as compared to a civilian,” Sabina finishes with a wink. “Lucky for us, huh?”

“Sure,” says Elena, wondering, not for the first time, if Sabina means _Jane_ when she talks about the whole ‘dating a fellow Angel’ thing. She shakes her head, brushing aside the tiny prick of jealousy that sparks inside her. With a satisfied smile she sets her notes aside. “Omelette time?”

Sabina rolls her eyes, but stands with a smirk. “Fine, omelette time. Get your ass to the kitchen - if you want to eat, you’ll have to help.”

For most of the training period, Elena doesn’t leave the headquarters. Everything she needs is on the grounds, and she doesn’t have much of a normal life to go back to considering she basically helped to take down the company she was working for. She doesn’t get stir-crazy - _much_ \- because headquarters is _huge_ and she’s never left wanting for recreation, but when Sabina takes her out for dinner at a proper restaurant, it still feels like a real treat.

The place they go is so fancy Elena barely dares to pick up the menu, let alone order off it. As it is, it’s all in Chinese and Elena has to struggle to read more than every other word.

“Is this training?” She asks, a little suspiciously, once Sabina’s ordered a couple dishes for both of them. Sabina gives her a wink. “As Bosley would say, _everything_ is training. It’s good for all Angels to have a decent grasp of as many languages as possible.” Elena gives her a glare, and Sabina snorts. “Come on. Practice is good. The sooner you can join me and Jane on the field, the better, right?”

Elena makes a grudging noise. “So we’re here to… practice my Chinese?”

“Actually, no. That was just a secondary thing, and also, their har gow here is excellent. We are here to sharpen your observation skills. Four o’clock, the woman with three children. What can you tell me about her?”

Elena glances up as subtly and naturally as she can, scanning the woman in question. “One empty chair at her table. She keeps looking towards it. She’s waiting for someone, and they’re late. She looks stressed - irritated, actually. Gets more irritated whenever she looks at the chair. The kids are restless and she’s already started to eat. They’ve waited for a while.”

“Good. What else?”

“Her shoes are cheap. Her whole outfit isn’t fancy - no accessories. She’s picking at her food. Not comfortable in this environment, too rich for her blood. She doesn’t look like she can actually _afford_ to eat here,” Elena says slowly, trying to put more pieces together in her head.

Sabina nods, looking pleased. “So, why do you think she’s here?”

Elena frowns, trying to think, finally shaking her head and biting her lip. “I don’t know.”

Sabina gives her a reassuring smile. “You’ll get better. See? Takes practice.” She nods towards the woman again, pointing things out. “She’s not wearing a wedding ring, but - observe the waiter. Every time he goes to speak to her again, if you listen close, he addresses her as _Mrs._ She _was_ married to someone, but now she’s divorced.”

“But the waiter still addresses her as a married woman? Which means…”

“It means, first of all, that she used to be a frequent customer, because he knows who she is - he’s addressing her by name. It also probably means that he hasn’t seen her in the restaurant since she was divorced, so he isn’t aware that she’s no longer married. Why hasn’t she been here since she was divorced?”

“She’s not from high society,” Elena completes, starting to figure it out. “She married someone rich and fancy enough to come here regularly, but they got divorced and she no longer had the reason or the means to frequent a place like this. She's probably here to meet her ex for some reason.”

“Excellent.” Sabina deftly picks a dumpling from the basket a waiter sets in front of them and puts it on Elena’s plate. “A bit more practice, and you’ll be able to reach those conclusions on your own, and then you can use that information when you’re approaching a target.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” Elena mutters, filling her plate with more food. Sabina laughs. “Trust me, Elena. You have to improve your observation skills. I didn’t take that seriously, and it bit me in the ass during your mission.” She sighs, growing a little more solemn. “When you were meeting Edgar in that cafe, Jane spotted something - spotted Hodak. And me? I missed a signal. That’s why you ended up nearly drowning, and that’s why Edgar died.”

Elena sits, stock-still, mouth open, and Sabina shakes her head. “Sometimes it still amazes me that Jane could forgive me. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she hadn’t. It was my fault.” She sounds so subdued, so different from her usual self, it makes Elena’s heart hurt a little. “So let’s not have that happen with you, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Elena agrees quietly. Sabina shoots her an understanding smile. “Good. More practice. Eleven o’clock, the couple in the ugly matching outfits.”

Jane goes out on a solo mission in Prague for a week with Bosley in tow. When she comes back, Sabina drags Elena out to the landing field to welcome her. The moment Jane’s off the plane Sabina’s flinging herself at her, landing a hug as dramatically as she can.

“Ugh, get off me,” says Jane, but there isn’t any bite in it, and it kind of falls flat considering she’s got an arm wrapped around Sabina’s shoulders. “You’re back! How was the mission?”

Jane shrugs. “Easy game. The usual. Nothing interesting happened. Have I missed anything while I’ve been gone?”

“Well, Elena nearly burned down the kitchen,” says Sabina, because she’s an asshole. Elena elbows her in the side and makes her yelp. “Don’t tell her that!”

“No, no, I want to hear this,” says Bosley, sauntering over from where she’s exited the cabin. “Do tell. What happened?”

Sabina animatedly begins the story, to Bosley’s amused laughter, and Jane snorts, heading to get cleaned up and do her post-mission report. Elena follows on her heels, letting Jane put an arm around her. She glances back, just once, at Sabina still on the field talking to Bosley, and thinks about the way Sabina barged into her room and insisted they welcome Jane home, the hug she gave her, and she wonders.

They get to the armoury, so Jane can drop her weapons off, and Elena pauses, trying to figure out how to broach the question. She really does want to know, for… more reasons than she can really articulate. Jane must pick up on it, because she stops right before entering and cocks her head. “What is it? It feels like you want to ask me something.”

Elena swallows, a little hesitant, not sure how to phrase it. “You and Sabina…?” She finally says, trailing off, because she’s pretty sure what she means is clear. Sabina did say she needed to ‘improve her observation skills’ - and all this seems like a pretty clear observation to her.

Jane doesn’t move an inch, giving her a very long, flat look, her jaw twitching. Elena has absolutely no idea what that expression means.

Finally, she says, with zero emotion - “no.”

“Okay,” Elena says, taking the hint, and scarpers.

She figures out what “no” means a week later when she heads to the gym for some late-night training and chances upon Jane sparring with Bosley. Jane’s laughing a bit more genuinely than she usually does and Bosley’s grinning right back at her, but she doesn’t really notice anything out of the ordinary until Bosley tackles her to the ground with a slick move Elena _really_ wants to add to her repertoire. She’s still admiring it from the corner she’s standing in when Jane pushes up from where she’s pinned to capture Bosley’s mouth in a very deliberate kiss, and then whoa, they are making out in the sparring ring and Elena is taking it out of there two steps at a time, because _nope,_ that is not something she should probably be privy to.

Well, back to square one with her deduction skills, it seems.

And so, there she is, with all her assumptions basically coming to nothing, and feeling pretty confused.

Sabina’s not with Jane. Sabina’s not with Bosley. Sabina doesn’t seem to be with _anyone._ And if she’s being honest, Elena likes her. A lot. A lot more than she probably should, which is why she’s overthinking all of this.

She doesn’t know if Sabina might like her back. They’re friends, really good friends - Sabina’s probably the person she’s closest to in the whole agency. And if she asks, and Sabina says no, she might lose that friendship. That’s scary as hell, and she still isn’t sure if that risk is worth the potential reward.

But this whole thing with training to become an Angel - pushing her limits, being better than she was before, challenging herself and growing stronger to protect people and do good - she thinks the whole point has been to make her braver. Bosley and Charlie recruited her because she was smart and was willing to put herself at risk for the greater good, and she did.

She can do this, too.

Elena takes a breath, steels herself, and goes to Sabina’s room.

She’s, no lie, kind of basically shitting herself when she knocks and Sabina opens the door and grins and invites her in, but whatever, _she can do this._

“You’re early. Our study session isn’t until five,” Sabina comments. “Did you need something?”

“Kind of,” says Elena, not sure where to look or put her hands. She came up with something vaguely intelligent to say on the way up, but it all seems to have gotten lost in the face of Sabina _actually_ standing in front of her.

Fuck it. She’ll just bite the bullet, do or die. “Do you want to go out with me?” She asks in a rush, getting all the words out before she loses her nerves.

Sabina pauses. She frowns, and a whole cabal of expressions makes their way across her face before she settles on utter confusion. “What?”

Elena feels her stomach sinking, but determinedly pushes on anyway, because she will came here to do what she decided to do, damn it, successful or not. “I really like you. A lot. I want to go on a date with you and see where that goes.”

Another moment of bemused silence, and Sabina looks atypically stressed, putting a hand to her forehead. “Look - hang on, Elena, just - just explain yourself for one second, because I could have sworn that was exactly what we’ve been doing for months.”

It’s Elena’s turn to gape and stammer, and Sabina stares at her for another five seconds before she lets out a long, deep groan. “Oh my god. Elena Houghlin, are you telling me that for the past few months we’ve been going out for dinner and staying up talking in your room and I’ve been telling you deep dark secrets and spilling about all my feelings, that you thought we were just friends?”

There is really no right answer here, so Elena just manages a small, sheepish smile. “Yes?”

“Oh, baby,” Sabina says, but the exasperation and disbelief is melting into laughter as she shakes her head, pulling Elena in for a kiss that Elena happily and giddily accepts. “Oh my god. I don’t know if you’re just slow or I’m a little stupid too. No wonder Jane was trying to interrogate me a while back.”

“You thought we were dating?” Elena asks, and then thinks back on how their relationship has been developing since her training began, and all the little hints right in front of her face, and… okay, maybe she’s just been _really_ slow. Sabina laughs. “Yeah, because we kind of were.”

Elena smiles, because yeah, she’s been an idiot for months, but now she knows exactly where she stands and where she wants to be. Better late than never, right? She sinks deeper into Sabina’s warm embrace. “Well, then - lucky me, I guess.”

“Lucky us,” Sabina agrees, and Elena lets herself be found.


End file.
